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Overview

JAT is a is a library of components to help users create their own application programs to solve problems in Astrodynamics, mission design, spacecraft navigation, guidance and control using Java or Matlab. It is not an application program, although there are a number of example programs included. You have to be able to write Java or Matlab programs to use JAT.

Example programs are available to demonstrate the capabilities of JAT as well as to allow new users to quickly learn how to make use of the built -in features of JAT.

Introduction

After using COTS Astrodynamics software, we have learned that no one application can satisfy all the needs of a researcher in the field of Astrodynamics. Therefore, we decided that JAT should be a software component library so that the users could have flexibility to create their own applications. However, since we are asking users to develop their own applications, the software components must be easy to integrate and use.

The choice of the programming language is usually a design time issue. However, in this project, the Java programming language was chosen for the following reasons:

Java is the preferred programming language of the initiators of the project

The initiators of the project already have a significant amount of source code in Java for the project

Java microchips might enable use of this software for spacecraft control in the future.

Java is faster than Matlab.

Java is portable. There is no need to modify source code to run on different platforms.

Java is object oriented, making it easier to reuse and maintain code.

It is easier to write bug-free code in Java because there is no pointer arithmetic and the Java compiler prevents a lot of errors.

Javadoc provides an easy way to document the code so that it can easily be used by others.